Pacers Notes: Slawson, Zubac, Haliburton, Bell
The Pacers have been impressed by Jalen Slawson since he signed a two-way contract at the end of last month, according to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscriber link). The former second-round pick had a big game on Wednesday, recording 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks in 37 minutes, and helped spark a fourth-quarter comeback that came up short.
“His energy and effort is really, really amazing,” center Ivica Zubac said. “That’s one of the starting things you have to have when you’re getting your chance just to get on the floor. You have to show energy, make effort plays.
“He’s blocking shots. He’s rebounding. He’s making the right reads, cutting to the right spots, taking open shots, taking good shots. He doesn’t really force it. He’s been great, defending his tail off. He’s been doing everything we want him to do and playing with a lot of energy and force. We all gotta play like that.”
Head coach Rick Carlisle also praised Slawson’s defensive activity, and noted that the 26-year-old forward has grown increasingly comfortable on the other end as well.
“He’s making better reads the more he plays,” Carlisle said. “You can see he has good feel. He can drive it. He’s got ball skills. He can throw late lobs and see things. Guys that can do a lot of different things like that sometimes are challenged with decisiveness, but he’s becoming more decisive the more he plays. … We all like what we see.”
Here’s more on the Pacers:
- Zubac was forced out of Wednesday’s loss in the fourth quarter after being elbowed in the head by Donovan Clingan when the Blazers big man was trying to dunk a lob (Twitter video link). As Dopirak writes in another subscriber-only story, Zubac had a sizeable lump on the right side of his head in the locker room, but he said he wasn’t experiencing headaches and didn’t have to enter the concussion protocol. “It’s not like that,” Zubac said. “I just got popped in the head and it swelled up, but no headaches or anything. I feel good.“
- In an interview with DJ Siddiqi of Casino.org, star point guard Tyrese Haliburton discussed his rehab from a torn Achilles tendon, his confidence in the team’s ability to bounce back next season, and more. Haliburton said he doesn’t have any specific goals for 2026/27. “None that I’ve thought through yet,” he said. “For me, it’s just about coming back and being the best version of myself. As far as giving myself an objective or anything, I haven’t really thought about it. Obviously I want to get exactly back to where I was and beyond. And win a championship of course. I just really want to get back to full health and get back to attacking every day as hard as I can being away from the court.”
- Indiana’s G League affiliate, the Noblesville Boom, has officially reacquired ex-NBA big man Jordan Bell, tweets Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files. As Agness notes, the Boom already held Bell’s returning player rights — he was on the roster in ’24/25 prior to suffering a season-ending left knee injury that required surgery.
Coach Rick Carlisle Expects Pascal Siakam To Return At Some Point
- While Pascal Siakam is making progress in his recovery from a right knee sprain, it’s still uncertain when he’ll return to action, according to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (Twitter link). The Pacers forward missed his sixth consecutive game on Wednesday, but coach Rick Carlisle told reporters he expects Siakam back before the end of the season.
- Tony East of Circle City Spin examines the circumstances surrounding the Pacers‘ long losing streak, which reached 15 games on Wednesday. It’s the most consecutive losses in franchise history, and Indiana is on pace for its worst record since entering the NBA.
Bucks’ Nance Among Two-Way Players Nearing Game Limit
Bucks forward Pete Nance had one of his best games of the season in Tuesday’s loss to Cleveland, scoring 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting, grabbing seven rebounds, and blocking two shots. Although Milwaukee lost the game by a score of 123-116, Nance was a +7 during his 30 minutes of action.
As Keith Smith of Spotrac observes (via Twitter), it was the 29th consecutive game – and the 47th overall – in which Nance was active. That’s important because the 26-year-old is on a two-way contract, which comes with a limit of 50 active games.
The Bucks still have 14 games left on their regular season schedule, but if they want Nance to be active for more than three of those contests, they’d have to promote him to their standard 15-man roster, which is currently full.
Most promotions from a two-way contract to a standard deal in a given league year occur between the trade deadline and March 4. That way, teams don’t prematurely fill a roster spot they might need for a deadline deal and have the ability to back-fill a newly opened two-way slot on or before March 4, the deadline to sign players to two-way contracts. Promoting a two-way player to the 15-man roster after that deadline means that a club would have to leave one of its two-way slots open for the rest of the season.
Promotions can still happen between March 5 and the end of the regular season, but it’s a less pressing priority for teams who don’t have 15-man roster spots available and/or won’t need their two-way standouts for the postseason. The Bucks, whose playoff chances are on life support, probably fall into both of those categories, so it will be interesting to see whether they feel compelled to make a move with Nance as he nears his 50-game limit.
Here are the other players are on two-way contracts around the NBA who have fewer than 10 games of eligibility remaining (their remaining games are noted in parentheses):
- Moussa Cisse, Mavericks (4)
JD Davison, Rockets (4)
Tyrese Martin, Sixers (4) - Caleb Love, Trail Blazers (5)
David Roddy, Nuggets (5) - Tristan Enaruna, Cavaliers (6)
Blake Hinson, Jazz (6)
Rayan Rupert, Grizzlies (6)
Payton Sandfort, Thunder (6)
Dalen Terry, Sixers (6) - Norchad Omier, Clippers (7)
Nate Williams, Warriors (7) - Patrick Baldwin Jr., Kings (8)
Jamal Cain, Magic (8)
Julian Reese, Wizards (8) - Trevor Keels, Heat (9)
KJ Simpson, Nuggets (9)
Jalen Slawson, Pacers (9)
Ethan Thompson, Pacers (9)
Chris Youngblood, Trail Blazers (9)
Some of these players were just signed a couple weeks ago and didn’t have that many games of two-way eligibility to begin with, so the fact that they’re nearing their limit isn’t a big deal for their respective teams.
Sandfort, for instance, joined the Thunder on March 2, giving him 12 total games of regular season eligibility. He has been active for six, but has a DNP-CD in all of them. It’s safe to assume Oklahoma City won’t be looking to find a way to promote him to its standard roster.
Others on this list were regular contributors earlier in the season but have been deactivated since they got close to their respective limits. Cisse, for example, was at 42 active games at the trade deadline, but has been in the Mavericks’ lineup for just four of 18 contests since then. Davison and Love are among the others who have found themselves exiled to the inactive list on a permanent basis in recent weeks. Their teams have gotten by without them lately and don’t appear to be prioritizing promotions.
That doesn’t mean none of these players will be converted to standard contracts by April 12 though. The Jazz, Warriors, and Magic are among the teams that have open roster spots, so Hinson, Williams, and Cain, each of whom has been seeing a decent amount of playing time recently, should be considered candidates to fill those openings.
Myles Turner Discusses Ivica Zubac's Fit With Indiana
- Myles Turner, who spent his entire career with the Pacers before signing with the Bucks last summer, assessed how Ivica Zubac will fit into the team’s system, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. Turner said it’s tough to make a judgment so soon because Zubac has only played three games with Indiana and many of his teammates are injured. “You’ve kind of yet to see it,” Turner said. “With Tyrese (Haliburton), he needs space to operate and I was able to stretch the floor for him. It’s a little bit different with Zu because while he’s a good play-maker and passer, he’s more of a low-post kind of guy. I don’t know what that spacing looks like in (coach Rick Carlisle’s) system, but it’s kind of one of those things you wait to see.”
Pacers Notes: Zubac, Q. Jackson, Carlisle, Injuries
More than a month after being acquired at the trade deadline, Ivica Zubac was able to make his Pacers debut this week, writes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. Fully recovered from a left ankle injury, Zubac played 16 minutes on Thursday against Phoenix and 29 on Friday against New York. Coach Rick Carlisle told reporters that it’s important for Zubac and his new teammates to get used to each other in preparation for next season.
“We need to find ways to make these games meaningful for the development of our team,” Carlisle said. “It’s important that Andrew Nembhard and Zubac play together. … We’re looking to introduce things that take advantage of Zu’s strengths, the guys he’s playing with. Now it’s just a matter of more time together in games.”
The Pacers currently have the league’s worst record, but they plan to be back in title contention next season with most of their NBA Finals roster still together and Zubac taking the place of Myles Turner. Zubac has been closely observing the team’s style of play over the past few weeks in preparation for that challenge, and he believes he’ll be a good addition.
“I feel like no matter who plays on this team, they play the same way,” Zubac said. “They fit right in. It’s always next man up. It felt the same. It’s different guys, but the way they play, the way they move, the stuff they do, everyone on this team is really bought into the system. No matter who is out there, they’re gonna play super hard, they’re gonna move the ball, they’re gonna sacrifice themselves for the other guy. It’s really fun.”
There’s more from Indiana:
- Zubac was playing with ankle soreness in L.A. and didn’t expect to get back to 100% until the season ended, Tony East of Circle City Spin states in an inside look at the center’s return to action. That approach changed with the trade, as the Pacers wanted him to be completely healed before he tried to play again.
- Backup point guard Quenton Jackson missed his second straight game on Friday with a calf issue. “It’s a mild strain,” Carlisle said, per Dopirak (Twitter link). “But every time you hear calf strain it’s not mild. It’s something that requires attention.”
- Carlisle revealed that as the Pacers deal with numerous injuries, they’re in frequent contact with the league office about who is able to play, Dopirak adds (Twitter link). The team was fined $100K last month for violating the player participation policy, and Carlisle wants league officials to be aware of his situation heading into a stretch of five games in seven days. He added that the conversations have been happening since mid-January.
Ivica Zubac Will Make Pacers Debut Thursday
March 12: Zubac will play on Thursday, head coach Rick Carlisle confirmed (Twitter link via Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star).
Obi Toppin, Nesmith, McConnell, Siakam and Jackson are all out, but Nembhard will be available, tweets East.
March 11: Veteran center Ivica Zubac has been upgraded to questionable for the Pacers‘ game against the Suns on Thursday, per Tony East of Forbes Sports (Twitter link).
If he’s able to play vs. Phoenix, it would mark Zubac’s debut for the Pacers, who acquired him at February’s trade deadline with an eye to shoring up their frontcourt in the 2026/27 season when Tyrese Haliburton returns from his ruptured Achilles.
After averaging 16.8 points and 12.6 rebounds per game and being named to the All-Defensive second team in 2024/25, Zubac has battled injuries this season, including a left ankle sprain that has kept him on the shelf since February 2.
At the time of the trade that sent him from the Clippers to the Pacers, it was unclear if Zubac would suit up for Indiana this season, especially since the 2026 first-round pick they gave up for him includes top-four and 10-30 protection, making the team’s end-of-season lottery odds especially important. The Pacers are currently 15-50, which is the NBA’s worst record.
T.J. McConnell, Andrew Nembhard, and Aaron Nesmith are all also considered questionable for Thursday’s matchup with Phoenix, while Pascal Siakam and Quenton Jackson are listed as doubtful to play.
Pacers First NBA Team Eliminated From Postseason Contention
The Pacers became the first NBA team formally eliminated from postseason contention after they lost at Sacramento on Tuesday night and Charlotte picked up a victory in Portland, tweets Tony East of Circle City Spin.
Indiana has lost 10 straight games and currently has the worst record in the league at 15-50 (Sacramento improved to 16-50 with the win). Charlotte holds the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference at 33-33, and since the Pacers only have 17 games remaining, they have no way to make up the 17.5-game deficit.
As Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star writes (subscription required), the Pacers were up 20 points with 4:58 remaining in the third quarter, but struggled the rest of the way. This is just the 10th time in the past 37 seasons that Indiana won’t make the playoffs.
“Crazy game,” Carlisle said. “End of the third quarter obviously was a big problem for us and their bench just played an unbelievable last 15 minutes of the game. Just tremendous. So you gotta give them a lot of credit. Their shot-making and aggression — all that — was big-time. We had some pretty good looks. They didn’t go in. That was disappointing. We did an awful lot of good things in the first two-and-a-half quarters, but unfortunately the last 18 minutes count.”
The Pacers have been decimated by injuries all season, Dopirak notes. As long as they hold a bottom-three record when 2025/26 ends, they’ll have a 52.1% chance at landing a top-four pick and 14.0% odds for the No. 1 selection. That’s noteworthy, because the 2026 first-round pick they traded to the Clippers for Ivica Zubac is top-four (and 10-30) protected.
The star of the game for the Kings was Devin Carter, who didn’t play at all in the first half, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. The 2024 lottery pick erupted for 22 points in the fourth quarter, finishing with a career-high 24 points, five rebounds and three assists in only 16 minutes of action.
“It felt great, especially my teammates trusting me, putting the ball in my hands,” Carter said. “They set me up for success, so it felt great.”
Carter admitted it’s been a tough season, as he hasn’t played much in year two. He has only made 27 appearances in 2025/26 and is averaging just 14.3 minutes per game.
“I haven’t been in the rotation much, so I wasn’t expecting too much,” Carter said. “Just trying to put my work in and stay ready.”
Carter has been ruled out of Tuesday’s game vs. Charlotte due to right calf soreness, Anderson tweets. Fellow guards Russell Westbrook (right quad contusion) and Malik Monk (right ankle soreness) will be sidelined as well.
Kings head coach Doug Christie voiced his opposition to tanking prior to Monday’s game, Dopirak adds.
“This is just me personally, I don’t mess with the game,” Christie said. “You do not mess with the game. You let the game do what it’s gonna do. There has to be a respect for the game and how you go about the game and how you play the game. In my opinion, stuff like that scars the players.
“How can I hold you accountable when there was a point where I was like, ‘Eh…’ You know, that’s just me. In many ways, we have to continuously protect our game and make sure that when we lace them up and we go out there, we’re giving our all always.”
Injury Notes: Prince, Collins, Pacers, Goodwin
Bucks forward Taurean Prince has been upgraded to questionable ahead of Tuesday’s matchup with Phoenix, tweets Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
It’s a surprising development, as Prince has been out since November after undergoing surgery to address a herniated disk in his neck. The Bucks applied for a disabled player exception in the wake of Prince’s injury, and NBA doctors determined he was more likely than not to be out through June 15, because Milwaukee was granted the DPE, per Eric Pincus of Sports Business Classroom.
While it’s unlikely the Bucks will use the $1,651,887 disabled player exception they received for Prince anyway, it’s worth noting that they would forfeit it if he’s active tomorrow. Incidentally, Tuesday is also the deadline for teams to use DPEs.
According to Nehm (Twitter link), Prince has been working out regularly on the court after practices and prior to games since he returned to the team following the surgery. The 31-year-old sent out a tweet indicating that he’s close to playing again.
Prince, a 10-year veteran, last played on November 4, Milwaukee’s eighth game of the season. He holds a $3.8MM player option for 2026/27.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- The Clippers expect John Collins to remain sidelined this week as he continues to deal with a neck strain, per Mark Medina (Twitter link). Collins, who last played on March 1, missed his fifth straight game on Monday. The 28-year-old power forward has done some on-court work, Medina adds. Collins will be a free agent this summer.
- The Pacers will be without All-Star forward Pascal Siakam (right knee sprain) and backup point guard T.J. McConnell (right hamstring soreness) on Tuesday against Sacramento, the team announced (via Twitter). Starting point guard Andrew Nembhard is also unlikely to suit up, having been listed as doubtful due to lower back and neck soreness.
- Suns guard Jordan Goodwin has been upgraded to questionable for Tuesday’s game at Milwaukee, according to Gerald Bourguet of Suns After Dark (Twitter link). Goodwin, a tenacious rebounder and defender, has missed Phoenix’s last seven games due to a left calf strain. Grayson Allen (right knee injury management) is also questionable for the Suns.
Central Notes: Pistons, Harden, Dieng, McConnell
The Pistons aren’t panicking even though their comfortable lead atop the East has eroded after their worst week of the season, writes Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. Detroit suffered its fourth straight loss Sunday in Miami and is now just two-and-a-half games ahead of Boston in the race for the No. 1 seed.
“It’s the NBA, right? And you look at the season, it’s long,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Everybody goes through difficult times or goes through a little bit of a rut. And we just found ours right now. And again, we’ve got plenty of time left to do what we got to do. Boston, obviously, is a good team. But we’re not concerned about Boston. Our biggest concern is making sure we’re doing what we need to do to go out and be as good as we possibly can.”
Cade Cunningham returned after sitting out Saturday’s loss to Brooklyn with a left quad contusion, but his 26 points and 10 assists weren’t enough to get the Pistons back in the win column. Reynolds points out that the schedule has been challenging recently – with three of the four losses coming against Cleveland, San Antonio and Miami – which is among the reasons the team isn’t overreacting to a tough stretch.
“Obviously, it’s probably our biggest dose of adversity all year,” Tobias Harris said. “We’ll be fine. Keep our head high and just (move) on to the next. But along this way, along this journey, let’s figure out ways that we can be better as a group.”
There’s more from the Central Division:
- Sunday’s home loss to Boston was a discouraging outcome for a Cavaliers team that’s trying to build a new identity after trading for James Harden, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com observes in a subscriber-only story. The Celtics were dominant for most of the afternoon and are looming as a tough matchup for the Cavs if they meet in the playoffs. “I told everybody, that’s the standard right there,” Harden said. “Me being in my 10th or 11th game here, that’s the level that we’ve gotta get to, Boston. Once we get there, because I know we’re good enough, we will get there, then we’ll be a much better team.”
- Ousmane Dieng did some intensive studying after being traded to the Bucks last month and was able to learn the playbook in two or three days, per Lori Nickel of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (subscription required). Dieng had been stuck on the bench for most of his career in Oklahoma City, but he’s been much more productive since the deal. “When you play the right way, you can play with anybody, or any team,” he said. “I just feel like I play the right way.”
- Pacers coach Rick Carlisle expressed concern about T.J. McConnell, who was forced out of Sunday’s game with soreness in his right hamstring, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (Twitter link).
Pacers Notes: Carlisle, Mathurin, I. Jackson, Brown, Defense
Head coach Rick Carlisle made it clear on February 24 that he didn’t think the Pacers deserved to be fined $100K by the NBA last month for the way they managed their players. Commissioner Adam Silver‘s statement at the time suggested the league thought Indiana (and Utah, which was docked $500K) was prioritizing “draft position over winning.”
Speaking to the media prior to Friday’s game in Los Angeles, Carlisle changed his tune, saying he was confident in the league’s ability to address tanking, according to Sportsnaut contributor Mark Medina.
“I place every bit of trust I have in Adam Silver,” Carlisle said. “This man is privy to be the ultimate leader. He really has. He really has smart people around him. They very carefully consider everything. They never react. They always think through things.”
While Carlisle’s remarks about the league were more generous than the ones he made a couple weeks ago, he strongly pushed back on the notion that coaches of tanking teams are negatively impacted by the practice, Medina writes. Carlisle specifically pointed to Mark Daigneault of the Thunder as someone who has benefited from the current system.
“You have the two best teams in the league — one in the East (Detroit) and one in the West (Oklahoma City) — that have built their teams much the same way,” Carlisle said. “I think Daigneault is a great example. He was a G League coach. But he built a relationship in that organization and a partnership. If he built those relationships and you become a real partner, the wins and losses, this is just my opinion, the wins and losses element of it, isn’t going to be that kind of a factor.”
Here’s more on the Pacers:
- Wednesday’s game in L.A. marked the first time Pacers first-round picks Bennedict Mathurin and Isaiah Jackson faced their former team since they were traded to the Clippers ahead of last month’s deadline. As Tony East of Circle City Spin writes, Jackson said he was caught off guard by the trade, adding that it was “surreal” and “bittersweet” to face the Pacers after spending spending five-and-a-half years with Indiana. Mathurin expressed a similar sentiment. “It was tough. It was tough for sure. … Everything I know is kind of based off of Indy, whether it’s just the lifestyle, on the court, off the court,” Mathurin said. “But I mean, it was good. It was definitely worth it – the change of scenery and also the change of organization. I said earlier that I was super grateful to be part of both, two great parties. It’s been fun, man. It’s been fun out here so far. My teammates have embraced me a lot, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.“
- Kobe Brown was something of an afterthought in the aforementioned deal that saw Ivica Zubac land with Indiana, but the third-year forward has played pretty well as a Pacer, averaging 8.8 points and 5.3 rebounds on .471/.423/.786 shooting in 10 games (24.8 minutes per contest). While Brown is unlikely to be a priority for the Pacers in free agency this summer, they will be limited in what they can offer him after the Clippers declined his fourth-year option in the fall, East notes for Forbes. It probably won’t have a material impact on contract negotiations, East acknowledges, since Brown seems unlikely to command a deal in this range, but Indiana can’t offer him a starting salary exceeding $4.8MM in 2026/27, whereas other teams won’t face that same restriction.
- Defense remains a major issue for the Pacers, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscriber link). They’re at the bottom of several defensive stats — including defensive rating — since the All-Star break, a trend that continued in Friday’s loss to the Lakers, which was far more lopsided than the final score (128-117) suggests. “In the first half, we had three or four times where we went for shot fakes and gave up and-ones or free throws,” Carlisle said. “That’s game-plan discipline. We can do better there. That’s controllable. It takes not talent. It just takes recognition and attention to detail and focus.”